While I had glasses most of my life, eight and a half years ago things took a drastic turn. I got pink eye, which turned into a corneal infection. It changed some of the chemistry in my eye as a contact lense wearer, and I suddenly found myself allergic to contacts. Every time I tried to use contacts, I would get another eye infection where I could barely open my eyes. On top of that, my eyes began to worsen quickly, and I ended up unable to wear contacts, legally blind, and in bifocals. I was unable to see far away and then had trouble reading too. It was awful. I had to wear thick glasses that were constantly changing, I formed astigmatisms in both eyes, and if I didn’t do something about it, I would have had to declare that I was legally blind at the DMV to put it on my license. No thanks.

The first eye doctor I went to about my corneal infection was extremely rude and blamed it on me, yelling at me for not doing what I was supposed to, which when you can barely open your eyes and your eyes are in pain, is the absolutely last thing you want to hear. How was I supposed to know?

So I switched eye doctors, and found myself at Dr. Tom Falkenberg’s in Fredericksburg. They not only took great care of me, but treated me with compassion and helped me rather than blame me for the situation.

A few weeks after my eyes finally calmed down and I had thick, bifocal glasses to see, we decided my best course of action was Lasik eye surgery. I was definitely nervous, but more than anything, I was so ready for the whole ordeal to be over and for things to go back to normal.

So in April of 2010, I had the surgery.

I was nervous for sure, but they gave me a valium, and that calmed me down. If you’re not a fan of talking about eyeballs, don’t read this next paragraph, and skip down two.

After your valium kicks in and they numb your eyeballs, the cut the top layer of your eyes and peel back, then prop your eye lids open so you can’t close or blink. It’s not really painful, because you can’t feel anything but pressure and you’re just kind of uncomfortable. Then all you see is almost like a crystal ball of lightning strikes for less than 30 seconds, and it’s all over, and they do the other eye. The place that top layer back on your eye when they’re done.

Okay gross eyeball talk over.

When they were finished, my eyes were a little sore, but it wasn’t too bad. My mom drove me home. I slept for a couple of hours, and when I woke up it was like a miracle. Out of reflex, I went to pick up my glasses, but soon remembered I didn’t need them. I could see everything without them. It was the craziest thing.

Yes, it is true there’s almost a little cloud floating around you for a few days. Lights seem a little cloudier or have a bit of a halo around them, and it just kind of feels a little foggy, but it’s definitely not bad. Actually the way I saw the halos in the daylight the day after my surgery was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen through the trees. I sometimes wish I could see that again.

For about a month, you can’t rub your eyes. You have to sleep with an eye mask or goggles on so you don’t accidentally rub your eyes when you’re sleeping or waking up.

Other than that, it was pretty easy! I was seeing 20/20 and without fog or clouds three days after my surgery.

Yesterday marks 8 years since the surgery and I can still see 20/20! Sometimes at night I still have halos around lights, but it’s not bad at all. The surgery was 100% worth it. It’s already paid for itself in not having to buy contacts for 8 years. My vision has been steady, and I haven’t noticed any differences. I realize that with old age, I may need reading glasses one day, but for now, I don’t need glasses of any kind other a pair I wear on occasion to shield my eyes from staring at the computer screen too long.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on Facebook about people not sure if they should do the surgery or not. If you’ve thought about getting Lasik or are on the fence, I would highly recommend it. I know it's scary, I mean, it's your eyes! But it's absolutely worth it. And if you’re in Fredericksburg, I would definitely go to Seiht and Dr. Falkenberg as he did an amazing job.